I'm thinking of starting a Spacebuild server and coding in my own doo-dads & restrictions and I'm wondering, why do people play SpaceBuild nowadays?

I remember my time spent on the McBuilds servers and there was 5% action and 95% building and E2 programming. Personally, I'd like to provide some pre-done stuff so people can fly faster, with reduced lag and a fair chance but I'm wondering, will that take all the "zing" out of Spacebuild?

I prefer to just build a ship and fly to other planets and make them habitable, although I'm terrible at doing that because last time it mean that I'd have to keep bringing large water tanks over every so often

Ok, looks like most people like blowing things up and a few like building stuff, looking pretty solid so far.

My big beef with the free method of giving people whatever guns or entities they wish is that they use E2 along with it to make their things omnipotent. That will be one the first things I'd like to change, no mighty death cannons without penalties and limits.

When I use to host, we would make teams, and build massive ships, and man cannons and repair as we fight and stuff... board enemy vessel and plant bombs and other things. We really took role in those battles.. I miss those days...

Shit get's laggy so in all honesty instead of putting a prop limit, limit the number of people on your server.

16 or so?

Well one of the alternatives I've been toying around with has one single entity acting as the ship's exterior (moving, shooting, being hit) with the ship's interior being simulated elsewhere. This way, there's only one object doing all the hard stuff and lag decreases dramatically.

The poll tells me that lots of people like building so I'd need to make the ship's interior as customizable as possible. Maybe even make the external entity able to have little doo-dads parented to it for some *swag*.

But if you can, make an optimization script to help cope with the lag.
It' not the server that lags, it's usually the guests computer/internet having the problems.

Sorta, kinda. I know what you mean though, I've seen some HUD E2's that cripple an internet connection and sometimes, just the sheer amount of physics updates make it go to hell in a hand basket. The little doo-hicky that I've been doing saves a lot of bandwidth as it cuts down on LOADS of unneeded updates.

Well one of the alternatives I've been toying around with has one single entity acting as the ship's exterior (moving, shooting, being hit) with the ship's interior being simulated elsewhere. This way, there's only one object doing all the hard stuff and lag decreases dramatically.

The poll tells me that lots of people like building so I'd need to make the ship's interior as customizable as possible. Maybe even make the external entity able to have little doo-dads parented to it for some *swag*.

If I aint got shag carpet and some damn good tunes, that vessel aint going anywhere.

It was the competition altogether. Not just space battles but to see who can colonize and control the planets.

After that, it was how unnecessarily immersive we could make the game. For example, transporting resources using a ship and the grabber tool when it was possible to just physgun the resources over to the planet.

A bit of teamwork and competition made Spacebuild enjoyable (unless the server was unable to handle the projects).

Ok, I've been poking my head in and out of some servers and all people are doing is building ships. Most of the time, none of them ever leave the ground. They just stick to a single planet and piece props together. Doesn't that get boring?

Ok, I've been poking my head in and out of some servers and all people are doing is building ships. Most of the time, none of them ever leave the ground. They just stick to a single planet and piece props together. Doesn't that get boring?

I've seen this everywhere. What I prefer is where the admins actually help set up the wars, just the basics. They give people a set time and people actually get them off the ground. Fighting with a ship that is ramshackle, built in a short amount of time sounds pretty fun, having to make up for ship glitches or handicaps with skill.

I've been mulling over some structures that the server could follow, do any of these tickle anyone's fancy?

# Something along the lines of DOTA. Two bases continually spawning fighters & frigates and sending them at each other. Players take control of capital ships and aid their team until the other base / space station thing is dead.

# Sorta like Terraria / X3 / Battlezone mixed with Spacebuild. Players (all on one team) start with a small, hobbled base and are able to expand by building more of their own bases, killing NPC's and exploring. Killing and looting allows players to find / refine / build new components for their ships or build a bigger & better one.

When I use to host, we would make teams, and build massive ships, and man cannons and repair as we fight and stuff... board enemy vessel and plant bombs and other things. We really took role in those battles.. I miss those days...

I've been mulling over some structures that the server could follow, do any of these tickle anyone's fancy?

# Something along the lines of DOTA. Two bases continually spawning fighters & frigates and sending them at each other. Players take control of capital ships and aid their team until the other base / space station thing is dead.

# Sorta like Terraria / X3 / Battlezone mixed with Spacebuild. Players (all on one team) start with a small, hobbled base and are able to expand by building more of their own bases, killing NPC's and exploring. Killing and looting allows players to find / refine / build new components for their ships or build a bigger & better one.

If any of those sound good to anyone, please say so.

This sounds really awesome, but is it possible, at least within your own realm of ability?

This sounds really awesome, but is it possible, at least within your own realm of ability?

I can certainly imagine the programming behind it, the tricky thing is thinking of ways to simplify it for the user (and so I dont have to code so much). I've been thinking of having EVERYTHING customizable down to the atom while adding an extreme amount of features but then I realize that I've become carried away. I'm trying to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) while giving a good aim for spacebuilders.

At the moment, I'm digging the minecraft / terraria style. The game could start with the players crashing on an inhospitable or hostile planet and they have to first collect resources to survive, then build a more suitable habitat, then build a shipyard, etc. You know, start with next to nothing and build up further and further until an "endgame" is reached. Should be able to be done while not making it too complex. Makes it a good team activity too.

I'd just like to clarify. Its obvious that people like building in Spacebuild but do you like building up bases, ships & stuff and expanding to space / other worlds or actually piecing together constructions?

Because of the amazing thrill of being able to manually customize everything the way you want in E2 along with the awesome feel of getting as close as you can to a space simulator (that isn't filled with text to speech AIEOU's) all while in the comfort of your cozy home back on Earth!

As it have been stated a few times, spacebuild normaly bogs down with lag (massive non-optimiced ships) and crashes that wastes hours of work, I aggre with the premade idea as it would help get the game off the ground.

I got a few friends of mine one time to play some spacebuild. I gathered a crew of 4-6 people to help build a space station and the other guys on the planet built a small fleet of ships to attack. It was a shit load of fun.

Ok, I've been taking down pages and pages of notes during my spare time at work at so far it's kinda looking like this:

- A team system kinda like in Terraria. They start off in Free For All mode but can split up into player made teams
- Ship hulls will be pre-made that include the engines, maneuvering and a resource network hub
- The hulls can be customized with external bling / doodads and the inside will have sockets for components. This will stop people from going "HURRR 50 FUSION GENS ON A SHUTTLE, BECASUE I CAN!"
- I've got a way to stop players dying and staying down relative to the ship, still working on it...
- Stations and planetary bases will also use this "start from a shell" system. This also helps maintain sustainability without having to cheat